Zodiacal Light

Zodiacal Light

Around the world, people far from city lights are noticing a luminous triangle rising out of the western sky at sunset. It is the Zodiacal Light. Last night, Feb. 9th, Alan Dyer photographed the phenomenon from the City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico:

Dyer, author of "How to Shoot and Process Nightscapes," describes the photo: "The tower of light at left is the Zodiacal Light. At right is the setting autumn Milky Way. At the base of the Zodiacal Light is bright Venus just setting, with fainter Mars above it."
Zodiacal light is sunlight reflected from billions of dust particles littering the solar system's orbital plane. These are the same dust particles that make meteors when they occasionally hit Earth's atmosphere. Zodiacal Light is very faint, so dark skies are required to see it. Now is a good time to look because the Moon is absent from the evening sky. A trip to the countryside on a moonless February evening often results in a Zodiacal Light sighting. Try it!

From SpaceWeather.com